Tuning SPECjAppServer2002ComponentsApplication Server: data source configurationCorrectly configuring a data source can be very important to performance. The size of the Data Source Connection Pool is generally tied to the IR being run. The normal formula to use, to size the connection pool, is to take the IR and multiply it by 8 and then add 10% of the result. For example, an IR of 10 run would require 10 * 8 = 80, then add 10% of 80 which comes out to 88. ******Make sure you set the <min-pool-size> and <max-pool-size> to the same value. ******why do you say make sure they are the same?

The recommendation is specific to that particular benchmark. Since the load on the server is constant during the course of the benchmark, setting min and max to the same value prevents JBoss from attemting to allocate more connections, or throw away connections, during the benchmark run. For your application, this might or might not make sense.